My thoughts about episode 7x25
This episode. Oh, my God, this episode.
I searched “emotional roller coaster” on the Merriam Webster dictionary and this whole episode was there.
Amazing, painful, heartbreaking, heartwarming. It leaves you full of fear and yet full of hope.
It’s an episode that literally oozes love out of every frame.
I will start talking about Steve and Danny, because I have so many things to say about them…
I loved how Steve shows up in Danny’s office as soon as he arrives, like he was impatiently waiting to show him his gift. How sweet can this man be? Same goes for Danny, so protective of Steve, constantly worrying about him, constantly checking – silently or explicitly – how he is. This scene is loaded with hints that foreshadow what will come later in the episode, it’s like Danny can’t help but feel something is wrong, and we start feeling the same way: the acting, the way the episode is built make you feel that way and it gets stronger and stronger minute by minute, and it’s so gut wrenching.
Plus, the way Danny and Steve act around Charlie is adorable. The way they look like a married couple, obviously, but – even more than that, if possible – the way they protect him, talking in code about Rachel and Stan’s divorce, because this little guy has been through so much already… To think they both were there the day Charlie was born, looking at him through the glass, loving him already even if they didn’t know yet he was Danny’s child… it makes me emotional.
And what about that scene in the car, when Steve starts talking about Rachel, out of nowhere, as if it’s something he can’t help thinking about… he’s worried, maybe even angry. He’s bitter, he’s jealous, most of all he’s still the man who, back in season one, told Danny: ““I don’t want you to get hurt. Okay? I just want you to be happy, Danny. That’s all”.
Steve tries to joke – he tries so hard, how painful is that? – and says “if you ain’t got nothing nice and positive to say, keep your hole shut … unless you’re “talking” to your ex-wife”. He knows that Danny, out of his good heart – too good sometimes – is trying to put under the rug all the bad things Rachel did to him, but … they’re just under the rug, they’re still there, they can’t be ignored, or he’s going to suffer again, to be manipulated and walked over, again!
And so Steve says it, honestly… “I don’t think this thing with you and Rachel is a healthy thing”. It’s not healthy, he says. I think it’s a very meaningful choice of words. Both Steve and Danny have been dealing with toxic relationships that sucked the joy out of their lives and I hope with all my heart they’re done with those relationships for good. Please, let these guys be finally, truly happy, please let them heal each other’s heart with the love they have for each other. They deserve that.
What about Steve telling Danny “I know that I’m out of my mind, but I also know that you’re in love with your ex-wife […] you got a shot to make things right”? First of all, Rachel was the one who put Danny through hell with her constant threats of taking Grace away from him and not letting him see her and then lying to him for three years about Charlie, so it’s really not up to Danny to make things right, he didn’t do anything wrong, he was a victim!
And I think that what we have here it’s Steve voicing his worst fears in the hope that Danny will prove him wrong. And I so hope Danny will prove him wrong. I believe he will prove him wrong. He already told Steve “you’re out of your mind” for thinking he might be still in love with Rachel and I think he was being honest, I think he’s just being civil and kind with her, he’s tired of fighting, he doesn’t want that for himself and most of all he doesn’t want that for his kids. I hope I’m not wrong.
Then Danny sees Steve taking some pills and his alarm bells start ringing, but his focus shifts on trying to talk Steve out of risking his life pulling probably the most dangerous stunt he has every pulled.
And just moments before Steve jumps, risking his life, the writers start working a whole new kind of magic, in my opinion, giving us some of the most subtle and yet most romantic and emotional moments I’ve ever seen.
How? The chef’s hat. Yes, the chef’s hat. I really believe they masterfully wrote some of the best, most touching declarations of love ever to be heard, just playing with words around that chef’s hat.
Even if he’s trying to pretend he’s not scared of the consequences of that jump, Steve knows that it could go horribly wrong. He didn’t want Danny to open the gift when he wasn’t there and now, thinking that jump could kill him, he needs to tell Danny those words before it could be too late.
“Chef’s hat”, he says. Meaning: there‘s nothing I care about more than you, more than your happiness and your dreams, because I love you.
And Danny understands what Steve means, he promises him he will be there when he’ll open his restaurant (when they’ll open their restaurant?) and, later, he says: “thank you for the hat, seriously”. Meaning: thank you for loving me the way you love me. And Steve closes his eyes for a moment and then says “You’re welcome, seriously”. Don’t tell me that wasn’t a “I’m in love with you”, because it was. I’m so sure it was.
And I obviously loved that adorable scene with them walking away together, holding each other, talking about Steve’s feelings and how the last thing on Earth Danny wants to do is hurt Steve’s feelings. The way these two guys cherish and love each other is so beautiful and it warms my heart.
And then… oh my God, my poor heart bled seeing Steve so tired, so pale, so scared… call me crazy, call me stupid, but I worry about him even if I know he’s just a fictional character… it makes me cry to see how he tries to minimize, how he tried to keep things for himself, to hide his health issues.. but he couldn’t hide from Danny, because Danny wouldn’t let him.
Life made Steve believe that he was undeserving of love, that there always was someone or something more important than him, someone or something that made people walk away from him, and now that he needs love more than ever, now that he needs someone next to him more than ever, he tries to hide it… but Danny won’t let him.
It broke my heart to see the look in Danny’s eyes, to see him so lost at the mere thought of Steve being sick. I so hope, with all my heart, there will soon be… I don’t know, another doctor’s opinion, something that will take this terrible sword hanging over their heads away from them.
One thing I’m sure of is that Steve and Danny will be together through all of this, and together they can face and overcome everything. Danny will show Steve how deserving of love, how important he is, how much he needs him and can’t even imagine a life without him. More than ever, Steve needs to be loved, to feel indispensable for someone, and Danny will be there reminding that he is, every step of the way.
I talked a lot about Steve and Danny, for obvious reasons, but there was so much else to be loved in this episode.
Abby and Chin, their sizzling chemistry and their growing love for each other.
The party to celebrate Jerry getting his badge… it was so endearing to see him so happy because these people love him. He was so lonely when we met him back in season 4 and now he really has a big family.
That super sweet scene with Kono and Sara at the market, Sara being absolutely adorable and Kono buying a pregnancy test… a moment that sheds an even more meaningful light to many other moments in the episode… her scene with Moani, that chilling, heartbreaking moment where she found that doll in the girls’ room, the talk she has with Lou about being a parent … I loved, so much, what she told Lou: “I could feel them in that room. Their pain and trauma. The fear they went to bed with every night”, because it was my same feeling watching that scene. She wants to make the world a better, safer place for these girls and thinking she might be pregnant makes that purpose even stronger, even more urgent. And I know she will succeed, she’s a force of nature, so compassionate, so strong, so brave. I hope we will get to see her fighting this horrible crime, but I also hope she will be back in Hawaii soon. Maybe, and hopefully, the two things aren’t incompatible. Her and Ohana - and we - needs her.
As I wrote when I started with this review, this episode leaves you full of fear and yet full of hope. I will hold on to that hope that makes me believe that these people will get the happiness they deserve. Steve will be fine. Kono will succeed in making the world that better place she desperately needs right now. And true love will conquer all, because today, more than ever before, I’m sure that Steve and Danny share the purest and truest love of all.
Thank you for this episode and for all the emotions!
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